Strangers Like Me
by warriorswolftail
Summary: Something's familiar. / AU, Kataang centered, though other (canon despite the fic being AU) ships will be included down the line. More info on the AU specifics inside. Rated M for future chapters.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I definitely did not intend to get another story up so quickly after Waitin' On A Woman, but the idea came to me and I had to at least get a prologue out before I forgot it entirely. I'm not 100% sure if I will post more to this story or not, though I would really like to, so if you want to come along on the adventure of seeing where it goes with me, please let me know! I'll be adding a second A/N at the end of the story as an attempt to explain the universe changes in my head as well as I can. Thanks for reading!**

* * *

"Sokka, would you _slow down!?_ We've got to be careful." Katara huffed through winded breaths.

Spirits forbid her brother think about what they're doing before letting excitement get the better of him.

Sokka spun on his heels, staring incredulously at his sister. "We are about to enter an _air temple_." He spoke slowly, his eyes only widening as he went on. "And you want to slow down!?" His voice rose along with his arms, which reached above his head now, at the end of his sentence.

Katara nodded in response, finally returning to regular posture as her normal breathing came back to her.

Sokka's mouth fell open along with his arms, back to his side. "Katara. No one has been in an air temple in _years._ Not since the monks and air nomads-"

Katara held a hand up, stopping her brother short on his sentence. She never liked talking about what happened to all the past residences of the air temples, even if it was more than common knowledge.

"It's still somebody's home, Sokka." She answered, quietly, and rolled her eyes at Sokka's immediate scoff in response. He knew as well as she did that wasn't her main reason for wanting to tread carefully.

If Katara was honest, while she did care about what once was a whole race of people's homes, she was more worried about what they would find inside.

It was one thing to explore the world as they had, meeting new people, learning the other cultures, but what, she could only imagine, the war had left for them to find behind these walls….

She shuddered at her own imagination, trying to ignore her brother's judgmental sigh.

"Come _on._" Sokka urged, grabbing his sister by the elbow and pulling her with him into the temple.

* * *

"Ugh! These damn doors!" Sokka said through clenched teeth as he kicked one of the doors, yelping in pain afterwards, immediately regretting the decision. He sunk to the ground against the door, holding onto his foot.

Katara placed a hand over her mouth, repressing the laugh she wanted to let go at her brother's stupidity. Though, in truth, she was getting frustrated just like Sokka was.

There were just a couple of doors like this one that they couldn't get into, and the places they had been able to reach didn't hold much for them. They didn't hold much except for unpleasant discoveries, and new nightmare material, anyway.

The sister of the two stepped closer to the door, ignoring Sokka's complaints, examining this door as closely as she had the others. No doubt about it now, you definitely needed an airbender to open the door.

"We're never going to open these doors, Sokka. There's no point in breaking your foot over it." Katara said, sitting next to her brother against the door, taking a closer look to make sure he hadn't in fact broken his foot over _a door_.

"Right, because I wanted to injure myself in the process of exploring an air temple." Sokka rolled his eyes, about to continue speaking before his eyes landed on a shadowed figure across the way, who had definitely not been there before.

"Katara." He spoke after a long silent staring contest with the figure, his voice wavering just slightly, betraying the warrior he liked to think of himself as. He gripped his sister's shoulder, trying to pry his foot away from her healing hands and stand.

"Sokka, would you just sit still, I'm barely even touching it for Spirit's sake. Don't be such a-"

She was going to tell him to be less of a baby and more like a warrior before she lifted her gaze up, trying to find her brother's face. Instead, her eyes landed where Sokka's had a moment prior, on the distant and indistinct figure.

Katara steadily, and more calmly than she thought she really was at the moment, helped her brother stand upright, leaning on the useless door. Sokka was talking aloud, going through their options.

They could run. Well, not run, not with his foot.

They could hobble; he corrected.

They could hobble, and hope the figure, which remained as still as a statue in it's place, didn't pursue them.

Katara didn't hear the options, or the one option, rather. She found her eyes stuck on the figure, drawn to it by something she would never be able to explain as long as she lived.

"So, you just get an arm around me and we hobble, and if it catches us then we die a noble death as siblings, at leas- Katara! What the hell are you doing!? Katara get back here!"

Katara waved a hand behind her back at her brother's yelling, and continued her walk towards the figure. She stopped short a few couple feet, but the figure was visible now, not just shadow.

He was taller than she was, maybe even an inch or two taller than Sokka. His black hair was cropped short, and clearly not brushed. She let her eyes linger down his body, noting the colorful robes he wore, and his straight posture, the man made no movements.

Katara brought her gaze back to his face, settling upon his grey eyes, before opening her mouth. "Hello. I'm Katara, of the Southern Water Tribe. The idiot yelling his head off behind me is my brother, Sokka."

"HEY! I can still hear with a bad foot, y'know!"

* * *

**A/N: I imagine that the universe this is taking place in is incredibly similar to that of the canon universe. There's still bending, there's still war, there's still a certain favorite Avatar, all of which will likely be explored in future chapters. However, I do envision the characters older than they are in the original world, I picture them around late teens - early twenties, exact ages undecided, so y'know, picture that as you wish. Most of the things not mentioned about the changes in universe (Character backgrounds, etc) are very likely to be explored in future chapters, if the story makes it that far. If you do have a particular part of the universe you're wondering about, or something like that, do let me know so it can be included and/or explained for you.**

**Again, thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate it!**

**-warriorswolftail**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: The story continues, yay! I apologize for this first chapter being so short, the others will hopefully be at least twice the length. That said, I do have a couple of chapters of the story written, or at least outlined, already, and I've decided that I'll be updating the story once a week! You can expect it to be updated every Friday, starting next week (so no update this Friday, sorry.) I figure with the brief outline of it all in my head, this story is likely to be pretty long, so I hope you're ready for a ride. Thanks for reading!**

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_Katara brought her gaze back to his face, settling upon his grey eyes, before opening her mouth. "Hello, I'm Katara, of the Southern Water Tribe. The idiot yelling his head off behind me is my brother, Sokka."_

_"HEY! I can still hear with a bad foot, y'know!"_

* * *

He had been walking towards his favorite place of the Southern Air Temple, one of the gardens, to meditate when he saw them.

The two figures just off in the distance, in front of the door to the sanctuary, the sight was enough to make his heartbeat stop and then triple in milliseconds.

He continued watching, though he no longer processed what the figures were doing, or where they were going to go next. His mind was too flooded with deciding what to do.

Does he run? They hadn't seen him yet, as far as he could tell, and even if they did he had no doubt that he could outrun them.

Does he stay? It'd been so long since he'd seen anyone at all, conversation with a human being would be nice, but then if their intentions were that of the fire nations….

His fists clenched at the reminder of the emptiness in his heart and chest at the loss of his people.

He jumped ever so slightly when his brain got his eyes caught up on the fact there was one less being in the shadows in the distance.

He managed to focus on the woman now standing just in front of him, listening carefully when her voice pierced the silence for whatever her intentions may be.

He ignored the small moment of sibling banter after her introduction, taking the quick moment when she looked over her shoulder to glare at her brother to take her in.

She was shorter than him, her dark hair loose at her shoulders, aside from the two loops in front. Her clothes were clearly that of a Water Tribe, he hoped that meant she was from where she said she was.

He was—used to be a fairly trusting individual. He still was underneath, but after the genocide of his people, he was incredibly wary, especially of this woman from seemingly no where.

He had no real reason to distrust her, her blue eyes bore no sign of ill intent. His eyes flickered back to her brother in the distance, even if he had meant harm his injuries kept him from acting on them.

"Aang," He finally said, letting his gaze fall back to the woman, along with relaxing his posture. "My name's Aang." He clarified after a second.

"Aang," She repeated it slowly, as if testing his name out on her tongue. "I like it," she said with a smile, extending her hand to him. "It's nice to meet you, Aang."

He hesitated only slightly before reaching to meet her hand with his own, shaking it. He opened his mouth to say more.

Whether it was to return the 'nice to meet you' or something else, Katara didn't know.

Sokka had made some yelping noise, no doubt trying to stand on his injured foot, before he called out again, "If you two are done with your how do you do's, would you mind helping me!?"

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**A/N: I apparently have a fondness of ending chapters with Sokka yelling. I promise they won't all be that way, and Sokka will definitely have a larger role as the story goes on. Please leave a review if you're so inclined! I love reading what you guys think, and I always appreciate the feedback. Again, thank you so much for reading, I really do appreciate it, and I'll see you next Friday!**

**-warriorswolftail**


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